Finally I have a home...and rats

Yay, I have a permanent home! It's actually the guest house I stayed in when I first arrived (yes, the GIANT place). UNIFEM has a new intern, Clara, so with our powers combined we negotiated the hell out of the owner and now only pay a small fortune for the second floor. There are two bedrooms, one bathroom and a living area that we share. And as the title of this blog suggests, we also have rats. There was one in my room the other day. I'll tell you the story of getting rid of it when I've dealt with the trauma.

Here is a photo of Clara and I at a Hari Raya dinner the other day. You might be aware that Indonesia stops for the 10 days after the end of Ramadan, but did you know that the next MONTH is spent entertaining friends and visiting everyone you've ever met and eating bucket loads of goat curry? Well it is! This was my first dinner.














Anyway, back to my new house, or more specifically: the area around my new house and the animals that live there.

This is my street.



















And here is the view of the mountains from the street.














OK, so now that you have a sense of the landscape, let's go in a little closer and meet some of the guys keeping it real at a grassroots level.

#1 Duckies!














#2 Old Mr Goaty. Old Mr Goaty (I think his name is Terrence) has an owner who is also old and thought I was strange for taking a photo of Terrence.
















#3 Cute little baby goaty. Once upon a time Terrence would have looked like this. Poor Terrence, he hasn't aged well.


















#4 PUPPY! Hello little puppy, you're not gross and chock-full-o-rabies yet! Even so, I restrained myself and chose not to pick him up. Being a mature adult is hard work.














Yes, puppy is playing in the rubbish dump. That definitely helped me make the mature adult decision not to pick him up.